Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-18

! to rob Itself of q million OF revenue in
order TO. promote the clsndestine traffic.
Z. Without this revenue we cannot keep
the government and the schools running,
except by largely increased taxation,
which the people cannot bear.
s. You deny that the suppression of the
traffic will app1eciably reduce crime or
the expenses of prosecuting crime.
9. You then make an appeal to the
| Holy Scriptures to substantiate your po-
sition.
10. Finally, you refer to the dismem-
berment of the Democratic party as pO-
Htical parricide which ought to be con-
| sidered as in Solon's law, an imp ossible
CRIME, and only on this account unac-
companied with 3 condign penalty.
Such, fairly stated, and more strongly
stated than in your paper is your deca-
Ilogue.
Some men will wonder why you did not
s9nake the Holy Scriptures your climax;
Why as it succeeded in the ascending
graduation of importance the preceding
eightTeasOnS it was in turn succeeded
and oNershadoWed by that higher and
more saesed reason, the preservation of
the Democ1Atic party. You seem willing
to concede the possibility of mutilating,
dismembering and disObeying that holy
book, and henceythe wisdom of penalties
for such violations of mere divine law,
but to mutilate or dismember the Demo-
cratic party is in yo1rssight a crime so
incOnceivable that an adequate pun
ishment could not be- named. l
say, some will wonder atsZyour COLO
cation, while Others, in their stu
pidity, will wonder, why by your recon-
mendation and approval you made this
awful crime possible. If, as you allege,
"the Legislature submitted this question
to fair vote Of the people in the fairest
mode in which it could be done, that is,a
an isolated issue unencumbered with
other questions that there might be fair
expression OF the popular will upon it,
then why do you now, you the Governor
who recommended and approved the
measure, now writing and dating from
the executive Office, complicate the issue
and cucumber it with other questions?
Why do you seek to Jhwart the legislative
will, which refused to connect this with
the general elections that it might be iso-
lated from party politics. say, why do
you now against the published protest of
seventy-siX Democratic members of the
Legislature seek to make this a party
impossible crimes, and suggest in con-
nection with this "isolated and unincum-
bered issue" the political parricide of dis
membering the Democratic party? It is
questionable whether any just man in all
Texas expected you to do such thing.
And how could you write that sentence
Immediately after "urging the people to
calm deIiberation at this hour, when the
tide of feeling is running so high that it's
roar may drown for the time the great
voice Of reason"
Do you suppose that when you, in
such connection, talk about "preteXt
for innovation against Democratic poll
cy," and when you say "the dismember
ment Of the Democratic party ought to
be treated as the crime of political par
riCide," that you have helped to allaY
"the tide of feeling" which you depre-
cate, or that you thereby "hush the
roar that browns the great voice of
reason" or that you have aided to secure
''calm deliberation, "Or that you have, with
the Legislature, left this issue "is0lated
and unenCumbered?"
Upon you, the Governor of all Texas,
the chief magistrate Of prohibitionists as
well as of the liquor dealers and their de
tenders, respectfully press the inquiry;
"HaVe you helped to "a fair vote of the
peOple'-have you assisted in securing "a
fair expression Of the popular will?'"
When you see and know by the express
sions IN the papers that thousands upon
thousands of Democrats desire to vote
for this amendment as an 'isolated and
unincumbered question:" but who do not
desire to Injure the Democratic party,
UnT
bearer, come out before the world, and,
upon just construction, intimate that for
a Democrat to be a Prohibitionist is like
numbering ones own father, in that the
adoption Of this amendment will murder
the Democratic party.
In doing this you defeat the only thing
under heaven the people asked for, that
is, an "isolated and uniucumbered is
sue"
They showed clearly by their votes,
tens Of thousands Of Proh1bitiOnists VINO
voted for you against DohOney, where
they stood as Democrats, and that they
did not seek to dismember the party.
Having thus, IN an unequivocsi manner
made plain their feaIty to Democracy,
they then say, now let US vote on prOhi-
bitiOn in non-partisan elect On as side
issue.
You recommended that this be done.
The Legislature did this very thing, as
their published protest shows, but now,
just on the eve of the anti-prohibition con-
yention, when they, driven by the threats
Of the liquor dealers, are trying to mus
ter up courage enough to make it party
question, you send out your pronuncia-
mentO giving TO their deliberate conspira-
cy all the sanction of the gubernatorial
name. By doing this you have made
this muchet least sure, that whenever
hereafteTtn all the future you mix with
fair minded men, the finger Of retribu-
ton viii point to withered flower in
your chaplet of glory, while the voice of
royal justice will say, in, the words of
Bruce at Bannockburn:
b Randolph, thy wreath has lost a
rose"
Every broken-hearted woman, widowed
and penniless by the liquor traffic, will
mark that wlthered flower on your brow
and find in it fit emblem of her own
faded hopes and blasted joys. Every Or
phan made such by the traffic will lament
as he looks hOpelessly on the wreath
adjoining the head of his Governor, the
absence Of that rose. Every real parri-
eide, who maddened by whisky, MUIR
dered his own father on earth and bias
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